Economy

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Following the independence and decolonization, there was an increa-sing production decline mainly when the plantations were nationalized. It was foreseen a very difficult time but happily at the end of 1980 things changed with the support of FMI and World Bank, allied to the forgiveness of the external debts. In addition, some important measures such as currency decay, public contention debt and mainly the plantations re-privatization were introduced. Meanwhile, some touristy infrastructures were established to create new sources of income. In economical terms, the country experienced some improvements although the population had to face some difficulties such as the increase of inflexion and of unemployment. Currently, although in a small scale, there is some development: cocoa production is growing substantially and it has been exported in larger scale. Some plantations are recovering their former productivi-ty and they are introducing new agri-culture products such as coconuts oil, manioc and coffee.

By the other hand, the commercial and administrative services employ the minor part of population although the offer of the tourist sector, which has experienced more percentage in terms of development. Industry doesn’t exist or is inexpressive: there is a factory that produces Creola, a local beer. In numeric terms, the main import countries are Portugal with 51 percent, France with 14 percent, Angola with 11 percent and Japan with 10 percent.

It is expected the economy to register growth of 6.0% in 2012, supported by foreign direct investment (FDI) in oil exploration and construction of a new deep water port.

However, expectations of long-term prospects remain highly dependent on the still uncertain, the potential for oil exploration, whose production is not expected before 2016.